Portal and Half-Life episodes writer Erik Wolpaw has returned to Valve - Sensationalist Headlines

https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/acd1i8/erik_wolpaw_writer_of_portal_12_cowrote_hl2_eps/ So if you check the credits for Artifact, Valve’s latest game release, you can find Erik Wolpaw’s name in the list of Valve employees, which suggested that he had rejoined Valve at some point before Artifact came out. He had previously left Valve in 2017 around the same time as Jay Pinkerton (since also returned to Valve) and Chet Faliszek (now working at Bossa). I decided to check with Gabe Newell, who confirmed that Erik Wolpaw has returned to Valve: https://i.imgur.com/2plbMtL.jpg

What a waste of talent to work on ARTIFACT of all things

Valve is supposedly working on several VR games (four, was it?), I wouldn't be surprised if some of the writers were interested in working there again if they actually get to write.

No, several games, but a minority were VR titles.

I still don't get what people were thinking when they thought Artifact was a good idea.

As much as Valve is kinda shitty these days... I still love that Gabe replies to a lot of emails. He's still a good dude at heart, I believe... or hope...

"I wanna make a card game." "Cool, lets do it."

I mean he was basically just working on Dota 2 lore before he left for Psychonauts 2 so not much changed there

Nobody starts life thinking they're going to do what for example Gabe or Todd Howard did. Starting their professional life as businessmen with either fantastic ways to distribute content and make a whole platform gathering several comunities with it, or making games that are hailed as gold standards, be it in both good and bad, but ending in anti consumer tactics to make the most money possible, or straight up lying about your products to get your fans excited over a product you have coming up. Except for that guy in the black suit from EA. That guy was probably created from the combined greed of all men and women in the gaming industry.

Fuckin hell Valve make up your mind.

That's neat. Doesn't mean we're any closer to getting Meme Dream 3, but having one of the "high profile" Valve writers who left return to the company perhaps bodes well for future Valve games. Now if for some strange reason Marc Laidlaw and Kelly Bailey come back (VERY unlikely), that's when we can start freaking out and theory crafting again.

No. Don't make me hope again. My heart can't take it anymore

Title scared me for a sec. Good to see he's back, but I just hope he actually gets to work on something good.

valve? publicity stunts? hell they probably didn't even know we knew he ever left

What if it's "maintenance" to recover from Artifact rather than artifact itself

Legends never die, they just slumber. Not all hope is lost.

I am sorry, but I am just going to assume it means nothing until something actually happens.

What? Wolpaw left of his own accord, then came back. Jay Pinkerton did the same, as well as Kelly Bailey (who then left again). Probably Gabe doesn't care that people want to do other things, and why would he burn bridges like that anyway? That's retarded.

Don't Valve basically start tons of games and then never finish them? I recall a podcast I listened to a while ago had some people that went to Valve offices and they said the previous year they were working on around 10 different things they got to see, and then the next year they went, they were working on 8 things that were completely different to the previous 10. So I wouldn't be surprised if when Valve makes these statements about games they are "working on", they literally just go around the office and ask "What are you working on?" and tally different projects and then announce it as "We are currently working on x amount of games!"

Being in the credits doesn't mean he worked on Artifact. It's just an alphabetical list of every employee at Valve. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQQgLHRAJAA

You mean Andrew Wilson? https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/239718/2938d95d-72e8-45a2-8208-ff38f1bdc5d7/image.png https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/239718/03c6a89c-c551-4755-ac20-65eea25af615/image.png Dude literally looks like someone who would hunt humans for sport

The dude is also director of Intel, which explains a lot.

Yeah, as usual there are morsels to feed on like Gabe saying Valve are making games again, and a couple of Portal writers returning, but we've had bigger red herrings than this before. After 8 years of near radio-silence (11 years for HL) there's no point in getting excited unless something actually happens.

Can't wait for artifact VR

So it's true then. Harry Potter Erik Wolpaw has returned to Hogwarts Valve. He only replies to emails when it doesn't take effort to do so.

https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/256730/35a8d0de-4489-41f2-8600-d16cdd65b2fc/014.png I don't even think artifact is a bad idea, it's just terrible timing.

What the fuck did i just read?

Yes exactly. Damn he looks pure Evil on the first photo, but I gotta say... He looks spiffy as hell. Literaly as hell

To be fair, he does get <meme>about ten thousand emails</meme>.

If he appears in the credts list, it's because usually all Valve employees appear in every game they make.